This Gulf News business section article by Cleofe Maceda (2014.07.28) seemed to promote Pearson's Global Scale of English (GSE) for use by recruiters, yet made no mention of "pay" in the article itself.

Recruitment experts said that companies are filtering out applicants with below-average English skills. This is especially true in the UAE, which is increasingly becoming one of the most popular destinations for multinational firms and business startups.

<!-- in article "Article continues below" tag removed -->

Colin Burcher, head of programmatic marketing, EMEA, at Google, said that one of the preferred requirements they look for when hiring employees is the ability to speak and write in English.

“Being part of a global team, it is crucial that we share knowledge and collaborate across regions. It is therefore important that all team members are able to communicate in a single language,” Burcher said in an emailed statement to Gulf News.